Prairieland Conference

The Prairieland Conference is a high school conference in western central Illinois. The conference participates in athletics and activities in the Illinois High School Association. The conference comprises small public high schools with enrollments between 50 and 400 students in portions of Fulton, Knox, Mason, McDonough, Peoria, Schuyler, and Warren counties.

History

Formed in 1982, the Prairieland Conference had eight original members which included; Abingdon, Bushnell-Prairie City, Cuba, Elmwood, Farmington, Knoxville, Lewistown and London Mills (Spoon River Valley). Spoon River Valley would be the first school to leave the league, joining the Inter County Athletic Conference By 1990, Elmwood began a football coop with Brimfield but remained in the league. Meanwhile, Farmington and Knoxville would leave the conference and head to the Olympic Conference being replaced with schools from Havana and Astoria, who already had established a coop with Table Grove (VIT) for football. In 1995, Peoria Heights would join the conference. Coops would continue to form as Table Grove (VIT) and Astoria would join forces in 1997 and be known as ''South Fulton''. Also in 1997, Spoon River Valley would return to the conference from the Bi-County Conference. Rounding out the 1990s, Petersburg (PORTA) would come into the league as well as a coop with Monmouth Yorkwood and Roseville in 1999. This would give the conference 10 teams for football.

Roseville and Monmouth Warren High Schools consolidated in 2004 to become ''Monmouth United''. This would end the coop for Roseville with Yorkwood, however, Joy Westmer took the opportunity to join forces with Yorkwood and begin their coop that same year, pulling Yorkwood out of the conference into the Lincoln Trail. Yet another coop would form in 2006 as Cuba and Spoon River Valley would join forces and become known as ''North Fulton''. Brimfield would fully join the league in 2008, leaving the Inter County Athletic. In 2009, Petersburg (PORTA) would leave the conference for the Sangamo Conference. Prior to the 2010 school year, Beardstown and Rushville-Industry would join the league and Farmington would make their return after being gone for 20 years. In 2013 Abingdon and Avon High Schools consolidated and Bushnell-Prairie City, West Prairie, North Fulton and Peoria Heights had opted to play 8-man football. Abingdon-Avon left the Prairieland and moved to the Lincoln Trail Conference in 2021. Sciota West Prairie moved to the Prairieland in 2014 from the Lincoln Trail Conference. Beardstown would leave the league in 2015 for the Western Illinois Valley. In 2018, Illini West would join the Prairieland, however, it would only stay for 3 years, returning to the West Central in 2021. In that same year, Macomb would leave the West Central and join the Prairieland. In 2022, the Cuba Spoon River Valley coop would join forces with Lewistown for football.

Current membership

''Sources:IHSA Conferences, IHSA Coop Teams, and IHSA Member Schools Directory''

Membership timeline

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ImageSize = width:1250 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1982 till:2023
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
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Colors = id:barcolor
id:line value:pink
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member with 8-man football
id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.78,0.391,0.654) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in a football coop
id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has consolidated
id:OtherC3 value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote)
id:OtherC4 value:rgb(0.6,0.791,0.924) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote)

PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:1982 till:2013 text:Abingdon
bar:1 color:white from:2013 till:end text:Consolidated with Avon High School

bar:2 color:Full from:1982 till:2013 text:Bushnell-Prairie City (1982-Present)
bar:2 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end text:(2013-Present) (8-man football)

bar:3 color:Full from:1982 till:2006 text:Cuba (1982-Present)
bar:3 color:AssocOS from:2006 till:2013 text:(2006–2013) ''North Fulton''
bar:3 color:AssocF from:2013 till:2022 text:(2013-2022) (8-man football)
bar:3 color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text:(2022-Present) (coop with Lewistown/Spoon River Valley)

bar:4 color:Full from:1982 till:1990 text:Elmwood (1982-Present)
bar:4 color:AssocOS from:1990 till:end text:(1990–Present) (coop with Brimfield)

bar:5 color:Full from:1982 till:1992 text:Farmington (1982-1992)
bar:5 color:Full from:2010 till:end text:(2010–Present)

bar:6 color:Full from:1982 till:1992 text:Knoxville (1982–1992)

bar:7 color:Full from:1982 till:2022 text:Lewistown (1982-Present)
bar:7 color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text:(2022-Present) (coop with Cuba/Spoon River Valley)

bar:8 color:Full from:1982 till:1989 text:Spoon River Valley (1982-1989)
bar:8 color:Full from:1997 till:2006 text:(1997–Present)
bar:8 color:AssocOS from:2006 till:2013 text:(2006–2013) ''North Fulton''
bar:8 color:AssocF from:2013 till:2022 text:(2013-2022) (8-man football)
bar:8 color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text:(2022-Present) (coop with Lewistown/Cuba)

bar:9 color:AssocOS from:1992 till:2007 text:Astoria (1992-2007) (Coop with VIT)
bar:9 color:White from:2007 till:end text:(2007-Present) ''South Fulton''

bar:10 color:AssocOS from:1992 till:2007 text:VIT (1992-2007) (Coop with Astoria)
bar:10 color:White from:2007 till:end text:(2007-Present) ''South Fulton''

bar:11 color:Full from:1992 till:end text:Havana (1992–Present)

bar:12 color:Full from:1995 till:2013 text:Peoria Heights (1995-Present)
bar:12 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end text:(2013-Present) (8-man football)

bar:13 color:AssocF from:1999 till:2004 text:Monmouth Yorkwood (1999-2004) (Coop with Roseville)
bar:13 color:white from:2008 till:end text:Consolidated into United High School (2007)

bar:14 color:Full from:1999 till:2009 text:PORTA (1999–2009)

bar:15 color:AssocF from:1999 till:2004 text:Roseville (1999-2004) (Coop with Monmouth Yorkwood)
bar:15 color:white from:2004 till:end text:
bar:15 color:white from:2008 till:end text:Consolidated into United High School (2004)

bar:16 color:Full from:2007 till:end text:South Fulton (2004-Present)

bar:17 color:AssocOS from:2008 till:end text:Brimfield (2008-Present) (coop with Elmwood)

bar:18 color:Full from:2010 till:2015 text:Beardstown (2010-2015)

bar:19 color:Full from:2010 till:end text:Rushville-Industry (2010-Present)

bar:20 color:Full from:2013 till:2021 text:Abingdon-Avon (2013-2021)

bar:21 color:AssocF from:2014 till:end text:West Prairie(2014-Present) (8-man football)

bar:22 color:Full from:2018 till:2022 text:Illini West (2018-2022)

bar:23 color:Full from:2021 till:end text:Macomb (2021-Present)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1982
TextData =

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text:^"Prairieland Membership History"
#> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Cooperative Arrangements

*Astoria+VIT=South Fulton
*Cuba+Spoon River Valley=North Fulton
*Havana+Illini Central for boys wrestling only
*Brimfield and Elmwood do not coop for basketball
*Bushnell-PC and West Prairie coop as BWP in baseball, football, softball and track. The schools do not coop in boys basketball, girls basketball, scholastic bowl or volleyball.

Competitive Success

The Prairieland Conference has won 9 state championships in IHSA sponsored athletics and activities.

State Champions

Boys Baseball
*Lewistown (1992-1993 A)
*Peoria Heights (2017 1A)

Boys Basketball
*Brimfield (2015 1A)

Boys Cross Country
*Elmwood (1977-1978 A)
*Elmwood (1983-1984 A)
*Elmwood (1984-1985 A)
*Elmwood (1985-1986 A)
*Elmwood (2006-2007 A)
*Elmwood (2008-2009 1A)
*Elmwood (2013-2014 1A)
*Elmwood (2016-2017 1A)
*Elmwood (2017-2018 1A)

Boys Golf
* Havana (1998-1999 A)

Girls Basketball
*Brimfield (2022 1A)

Girls Volleyball
*West Prairie (2016 1A)

References

External links

Prairieland Football Conference, Black Division
Prairieland Black Conference schedules and standings

Prairieland Football Conference, Blue Division
Prairieland Blue Conference schedules and standings

Abingdon High School

Astoria High School

Avon High School

Brimfield High School

Bushnell-Prairie City High School

Cuba High School

Elmwood High School

Havana High School

Knoxville High School

Knoxville High School Football

Lewistown High School

Peoria Heights High School

Spoon River Valley High School

VIT High School

West Prairie High School

{{Illinois High School Association

High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States
Illinois high school sports conferences
High school sports in Illinois